Over the years it has been found that heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, with over half of them being unaware of this fact. Women often do not put much focus on their heart health and that could be extremely detrimental in terms of what lies ahead of them in the future. Not prioritising heart health from a fairly young age can lead to severe heart diseases.
Therefore, ahead of this World Heart Day, here is understanding a bit more about all that women’s heart health entails. One should know that there are rather specific characteristics of heart disease that affect women.
Dr. Aditya Verma, Cardiologist, MBBS / MD / DM at Golf View Healthcare & Research says, “In the reproductive age group, women are protected from heart diseases especially coronary artery disease by certain hormones, like estrogen. But after menopause, the risk of having a heart attack increases.”
“Women’s specific risk factors for cardiac illnesses include anaemia, early menopause, PCOS, endometriosis, use of birth control pills, autoimmune diseases, pregnancy-induced hypertension, eclampsia, gestational diabetes. Mental health also plays a major role in the development of cardiac diseases in women, especially depression, low social support and anxiety,” he further added.
It’s concerning that women are more likely to be misdiagnosed when it comes to testing for the risk and diagnosis of heart attacks. This risk is particularly high for exercise stress testing (TMT), where there are often more False Positive and False Negative results. Additionally, interpreting CT Coronary Angiography accurately in obese women can be challenging, which can lead to potentially unreliable results.
Dr. Verma stated, “Women can have vague symptoms even during a heart attack like Unusual fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, indigestion, dizziness, palpitations, dull aching chest pain, abdomen discomfort, neck and shoulder pains. Peripartum cardiomyopathy is the development of heart failure in women within 6 months of delivery or 1-2 months before delivery. That phase of life in a woman is probably the most delicate one.”
He further went on to add, “Hence, we see that heart diseases can behave differently in women and a gender-specific awareness campaign is required. Unusual symptoms in the body should not be ignored and medical help should be taken.”
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